Our story
How we started and why we're passionate about changing the system!
Zero waste, guilt-free takeaway
You drink your coffee or eat your lunch in 30 minutes. The single-use packaging remain on earth for hundreds of years, polluting oceans and communities worldwide.
Reuser ends this wasteful system by reusing the packaging, not wasting it.
Stop the rubbish at the source
Think about all the bags, boxes, cups, and cutlery in each takeaway or delivery order. Now multiply that by 7.5 billion. That's how much waste food deliveries in the UK alone produced in 2019. Or how about the coffee cups? Well, the UK uses over 3.2 billion of those every year, with an estimated 500,000 cups littered every day.
Unfortunately, most of this waste isn't recyclable because it's made from mixed materials or contaminated by food and drink residue.
Reuser eliminates this waste problem via its reusable packaging system.
Reuse is the future of sustainable packaging
Not “recyclable”, “biodegradable”, or even “compostable” packaging. In all environmental life cycle assessments, reuse is the most sustainable packaging solution.
We wholeheartedly believe that reuse will become the “status quo” in our everyday lives. In the future, our children will ask us “did you really just throw everything away after you used it just once?”
Let’s put an end to this nonsense, wasteful approach. Let’s ignite the reuse revolution instead!
Support local businesses without hurting the environment
Currently, if you wanted to live “the most sustainable life possible” - you wouldn’t ever go out and grab a takeaway coffee, pint, or meal because you would generate single use waste from these activities. This isn’t right. We shouldn’t have to choose between supporting local cafes, restaurants, and events vs. doing the right thing for the environment.
This is at the core of why Reuser exists. We want you to be able to support all these amazing local businesses without negatively impacting the environment.
Make reuse as easy as possible
Another problem we at Reuser have with living “the most sustainable life possible” is that typically this is inconvenient and impractical for the average citizen. That’s why we’ve designed our system to be as easy as possible for consumers and vendors to live without waste!
You do have to return your containers to drop-off points, but we try to place these drop-off points in the most convenient locations possible at our customer sites. We also have grand visions of placing these return bins all around London in public places too (eg parks, tube stops, supermarkets, etc.) and are working with councils to try and make this a reality.
We take cleaning and hygiene seriously
All our packaging is washed in an industrial conveyor dishwasher, equipped with four cycles: pre-wash, wash, hot air dry, and room temperature dry.
The wash cycles ensure that all food or drink residue and germs are removed.
The dry cycles ensure the packaging is dry before being placed into our reusable tote boxes (which are also cleaned and dried) to prevent any bacteria from building up.
Lastly, the packaging is quality checked by a human. Any quality check fails are re-washed or set aside for special treatment (eg gum, sticker, or permanent marker removal) then re-washed.
The Founder and How it Began
The founder of Reuser (Andrew Matthews - pictured here at the start of Reuser in the pandemic era) loved to order takeaway/delivery, grab something on the go, visit a food market, go to concerts and support local food and drink businesses! This produced a lot of waste, but he always placed his packaging in recycling or food waste. When he realised that the majority of his recycling isn't recycled, and none of his compostable packaging is composted, he decided to start Reuser.
"No one should have to choose between having fun and enjoying food and drink from businesses ... and ... living a sustainable lifestyle."
This remains the core ethos behind Reuser - make reuse as easy as possible. Join us!
Mission and Vision
Vision:
To end the use of harmful and unnecessary waste and become a beacon of the circular economy.
Mission:
To enable consumers and vendors to eliminate their single-use food and drink packaging waste via a user-friendly reusable container system that builds community and improves the environment.